tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post1631475593826700282..comments2015-08-02T01:33:39.760-04:00Comments on Pigs, Gourds, and Wikis: Apple disses ebook developers at its perilLiz Castrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03702965670724927266noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-14525856182016567882011-08-30T09:51:53.415-04:002011-08-30T09:51:53.415-04:00@Lisa Tennant - Did you manage to get your childre...@Lisa Tennant - Did you manage to get your children&#39;s books published on iTunesConnect?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-64548648994696438502011-06-20T02:42:02.494-04:002011-06-20T02:42:02.494-04:00I believe they changed the requirement for illustr...I believe they changed the requirement for illustrated books in mid-March in that they now require them to be in fixed layout form. Can you help me in this regardsData Processing, ebook conversion, web design services, SEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459925284962118314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-51547682489982647962011-06-20T02:40:58.927-04:002011-06-20T02:40:58.927-04:00Hi,
This is Debasish from India. I am a Publishing...Hi,<br />This is Debasish from India. I am a Publishing Service provider, One of the my client request to quote for a service, but I don&#39;t know how I convert there MSS to fixed-layout epub, there is complete child illustration book.<br />Clients Comment:<br />&quot;I believe they changed the requirement for illustrated books in mid-March in that they now require them to be in fixed layout form&quot; can you help me in this regards.<br /><br />ThanksData Processing, ebook conversion, web design services, SEOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459925284962118314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-11516713312995950072011-03-31T15:52:30.871-04:002011-03-31T15:52:30.871-04:00I *have* written about how to create Fixed Layout ...I *have* written about how to create Fixed Layout EPUBs. A whole miniguide. It&#39;s free to anyone who&#39;s bought my book, no matter where you&#39;ve bought it, or $4 if you want to buy it on its own. More info here: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2011/02/fixed-layout-epubs-for-ipad-and-iphone.htmlLiz Castrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03702965670724927266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-44046724792439595282011-03-30T19:15:24.451-04:002011-03-30T19:15:24.451-04:00A writer, graphic designer, and publisher, I am cu...A writer, graphic designer, and publisher, I am currently ripping my hair out trying to get my InDesign picture book to work as an EPUB. The best format is a PDF, of course, as the picture book does not need text reflow. After 30 years of supporting Apple (as a published author with Scholastic and as an independent publisher as well), I am very disappointed in Apple&#39;s lack of ibook support to independent publishers with GREAT products.<br /> <br />Liz, thank you for any help you can give us on how to create an EPUB picture book that maintains the original image and text layout and design quality. Your EPUB book is being delivered to me, today, but it doesn&#39;t sound like you have yet published on this specific topic - darn!Dr. Michttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16512785205244163582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-91460594628358726272011-01-21T10:24:38.248-05:002011-01-21T10:24:38.248-05:00Liz: there is a reason Apple didn&#39;t and still ...Liz: there is a reason Apple didn&#39;t and still doesn&#39;t want majority of people to create ebooks in a fixed layout - that&#39;s against the spirit of epub and won&#39;t work too well in different aspect ratios, think maybe Apple TV or iPod nano...<br />I don&#39;t think there ever will be a good solution that will allow both a reflow and decent positioning, unless you go the route of FOSI os XSL:FO which is not for the faint of heart, so you have to bear in mind that this current solution is pretty much a &#39;hack&#39; to make it work to those who absolutely need it and need it right now.<br />I think in the future it will be replaced by HTML5 canvas or a similar solution.Lechhttp://kode1100.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-89233262770576753912010-12-26T16:47:25.170-05:002010-12-26T16:47:25.170-05:00The &quot;Restless Universe&quot; that I cited ear...The &quot;Restless Universe&quot; that I cited earlier, works nicely in iBooks 1.2, the newest version. If memory serves, these functions worked in the previous version except that text was subject to standard page boundaries, flow, etc. Now, it&#39;s wall-to-wall. Even double-tapping illustrations goes to the full screen though that doesn&#39;t help many of them, just adds more white space.flowneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11463325863108585202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-89550894474482736902010-12-26T04:06:34.322-05:002010-12-26T04:06:34.322-05:00What on earth is the rush? Personally, I&#39;m gla...What on earth is the rush? Personally, I&#39;m glad that Apple is making an effort to get things working right before they publish documentation. The last thing I need is specs and procedures that change every few weeks. I spent a decade chasing changes in browser renderings, and I&#39;d rather avoid doing that again. And though I&#39;m eager to see how the new tricks are done, I think they&#39;ve done great with their documentation so far.Aaron Shepardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635644195776251190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-6894849740271076062010-12-24T15:57:12.893-05:002010-12-24T15:57:12.893-05:00@flowney
I had heard somewhere that those books a...@flowney<br /><br />I had heard somewhere that those books available were done for the old version. Does anyone know if that is true? Has anyone tested these out in the new version of iBooks?Lisa Tennanthttp://lisatennant.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-6250001893057834952010-12-21T13:07:52.273-05:002010-12-21T13:07:52.273-05:00@flowney,
I like the idea that university faculty ...@flowney,<br />I like the idea that university faculty have responsibilities that preclude learning.<br /><br />Writing an ePub from scratch wasn&#39;t very difficult. I would hope that university faculty, of all people, would be able to have opportunities to collaborate with smart, technical people who will work cheap or for free.John Danielhttp://www.etrepress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-14569951346836371672010-12-20T17:02:44.595-05:002010-12-20T17:02:44.595-05:00@Mark, you might be able to deconstruct an example...@Mark, you might be able to deconstruct an example if one could be found without DRM. I see that Apple has made a few eBooks for developers available AND they are not DRM&#39;d. Currently, i am looking at the one on iOS human interface guidelines. I use BBEdit so it&#39;s a simple matter of dragging and dropping an .ePub file onto the BBEdit icon in the MacOS X dock.flowneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11463325863108585202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-16258606629692527732010-12-20T11:24:42.872-05:002010-12-20T11:24:42.872-05:00@Anonymous the first one, you can update the books...@Anonymous the first one, you can update the books by re-opening the iTunes packages and putting in a new ePub and then resubmitting. It&#39;s not obvious and at my company have had problems knowing if this works or not.<br /><br />It is annoying that they have kept so much secret from normal ebook publishers. We also make apps and you get more information about how everything works with which we can usually track a problem down. Not so with iBooks.<br /><br />Also has anyone seen how to create these new illustrated books or is that a closely guarded secret still?!Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09425063452269582828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-65768231070392228502010-12-20T06:20:11.386-05:002010-12-20T06:20:11.386-05:00@Robert. I think what bugs me most about Apple is ...@Robert. I think what bugs me most about Apple is that they are pretending to follow the standards by saying they support ePUB and then don&#39;t really follow them much at all. Amazon makes no such pretensions. I think Amazon&#39;s choice of format is unfortunate and wouldn&#39;t buy a single-use device like the Kindle, but at least they&#39;re up front about it. (Don&#39;t worry, though, I have plenty of complaints about Amazon too :)Liz Castrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03702965670724927266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-74118523914227725042010-12-20T06:16:22.746-05:002010-12-20T06:16:22.746-05:00At the risk of being off-topic, why not also scold...At the risk of being off-topic, why not also scold Amazon for their lousy ebook format? Of course, the Kindle devices are e-ink so far, but you also have kindle for ipad to worry about and future tablet devices. Sure, you can submit epubs to Amazon, but the css support is too limited to do anything.Robert Naglehttp://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-17836520577427094402010-12-19T08:10:49.062-05:002010-12-19T08:10:49.062-05:00ePub 3? That sounds promising, maybe this is an ea...ePub 3? That sounds promising, maybe this is an early implementation and still a moving target. Seems fair to assume that the new ePub format will support larger screens and fullscreen images.Peter Bontehttp://www.bonte.benoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-35814209533791862372010-12-18T19:02:13.856-05:002010-12-18T19:02:13.856-05:00The folks I work with (university faculty) can&#39...The folks I work with (university faculty) can&#39;t use inDesign (too expensive) or write ePub from scratch (they have responsibilities that preclude the learning investment required). That leaves Sigil (Mac/Win) and Pages (Mac).<br /><br />With ePub 3 on the horizon, it&#39;s understandable that things are in a state of flux with regard to the standard-ness of ePub.Perhaps we&#39;ll see more attempts at achieving a fait accompli with ePub 3.<br /><br />It will be interesting to see if the Pages app in iWork &#39;11 predicted for the next quarter will reveal any more clues.flowneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11463325863108585202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-57250882176277135672010-12-18T13:08:02.630-05:002010-12-18T13:08:02.630-05:00I suspect the picture book format was (maybe still...I suspect the picture book format was (maybe still is) a work in progress. As soon as they publish a how-to, they&#39;re locked into the procedures and algorithms they describe. As soon as they get it all worked out, they&#39;ll publish how to do it (or they&#39;ll add the functionality to Pages, and it&#39;ll be easy to figure out on our own). I agree, though, it&#39;s frustrating to be looking around and not be able to figure it out.<br /><br />I doubt very much Apple intends to keep it secret, but they understand they don&#39;t have the same leverage with publishers as Amazon does, so if they published too soon, they&#39;d risk Amazon beating them to the punch with their own tech.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-35795538715194598512010-12-17T15:19:53.904-05:002010-12-17T15:19:53.904-05:00Thanks Liz for you blog and books, your recent EPU...Thanks Liz for you blog and books, your recent EPUB books is a good send. I am with a publishing department with in the USDA, and we&#39;re exploring Ebooks, and so far are leaning towards the epub format, but with this recent Ipad 1.2 issues, we maybe have to wait and see how feasible it is to support development in a format that maybe to proprietary. Keep up the good work, look forward to your blog updates and publications.COMPUKNACKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06312431787103812202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-16412845528624889672010-12-17T10:36:35.210-05:002010-12-17T10:36:35.210-05:00Totally agree Liz. I don&#39;t even know where to ...Totally agree Liz. I don&#39;t even know where to find out about these illustrated books! Maybe there is nothing in the eBook store for the UK? <br /><br />Anyway, as someone who is coming from a web developer background, I am very used to (although not happy about), hacking stuff for different browsers. It seems the same for the eReader devices now.<br /><br />So, I make some feature that shows up on the iPad, but I then am faced with a huge growing list of eReaders that will also display ePUB - so I will possibly need to test for those devices as well :-<br /><br />Anyone got an ebook usability lab for hire??Chris Jenningshttp://www.pagetoscreen.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-58930037053466727502010-12-17T10:27:56.564-05:002010-12-17T10:27:56.564-05:00Apple is a very controlling, proprietary-technolog...Apple is a very controlling, proprietary-technology company. They have never had any interest in being open. That is not going to change with eBooks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-43199312595666261622010-12-17T10:19:09.983-05:002010-12-17T10:19:09.983-05:00If I understand it correctly, the new iBooks app a...If I understand it correctly, the new iBooks app allows full-page bleed on images, a major improvement for picture book creators such as myself. I totally agree that withholding info seems bizarre, but am hoping it has something to do with working out the bugs first.<br /><br />Re the size of type, etc. on a small screen, maybe publishers are hoping to switch over as much as possible of their backlist to ebooks whether they&#39;re really suitable or not. <br /><br />However, authors and illustrators are going to have to write/design with an ebook and its limitations/advantages in mind from the start in order to get the best end result, methinks. Thanks for your blog!Loreen Leedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02783236322334230920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-35067929902994583082010-12-17T10:09:29.856-05:002010-12-17T10:09:29.856-05:00Ack...1.2 wrecked some of my amateurish workaround...Ack...1.2 wrecked some of my amateurish workarounds for picture books I was producing. Apple really should make it possible to push out revisions/corrections to people that bought earlier versions. <br /><br />I realize it sort of defeats the purpose of EPUB to create a file intended just for the iBooks or Apple devices. HOWEVER I&#39;m trying to lock the display orientation of my EPUB files - so when you turn the iPad or iPhone, it doesn&#39;t reorient everything. Is that even possible? Would that happen to be in your Straight to the Point book?David Martin Statichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00822622000130336534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-26063445115502570672010-12-17T09:16:56.653-05:002010-12-17T09:16:56.653-05:00Apple has always moved ahead and left standards be...Apple has always moved ahead and left standards behind. What they&#39;re doing here isn&#39;t new to them. And what better way to test changes the might not work than to give it to a limited sub-set of developers, possibly developers who have paid them to develop the technology?Rob Archerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157784766278330735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-3803393810684022902010-12-17T09:05:27.196-05:002010-12-17T09:05:27.196-05:00It&#39;s all about money and being exclusive—that ...It&#39;s all about money and being exclusive—that is their marketing strategy. I can see it clearly this morning as I read this blog post after JUST receiving an email ad from Apple: <br /><br />iBookstore Spotlight: Children&#39;s Books<br /><br />I am truly disappointed if they are making so that a simple epub that works on the earlier version will not work in 1.2. They are doing what Microsoft had done before in the browser wars and continued to do in non-cooperation with standards. I hated them for it, and I am not happy now.<br /><br />I have been working on three children&#39;s picture books and planning on publishing one this summer, hoping to get it out there in hard copy and as an epub. What is this going to mean for me? I cannot publish it and have it read on iPad because they have exclusive authors? <br /><br />Let us spread the word and complain to Apple. To dis their producers and have it effect their consumers in such a way that they do not have variety is not that smart.Lisa Tennanthttp://lisatennant.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2967648901802250573.post-45073447019179902742010-12-17T08:41:23.238-05:002010-12-17T08:41:23.238-05:00I whole heartedly agree - I produce e-pubs for one...I whole heartedly agree - I produce e-pubs for one of the big publishing companies and have hacked and thwacked my way around Apple&#39;s non compliant reader to produce titles that looked great in iBooks 1.1 and still degraded gracefully on other readers. Are they now broken in 1.2? Do I have to revise them and where does this leave customers that have bought the previous versions? AFAIK there is no way to push out corrections and revisions to the consumer.<br /> With no documentation for the new features or reference for the supported standards it is extremely difficult to produce files that use any of these features and still provide an acceptable reading experience on other readers. No publisher wishes to maintain separate files for different devices or entertain hacky workarounds and so the features are likely to be ignored by any publisher with a large list. STANDARDS, DOCUMENTATION and, if possible, LESS ARROGANCE please Apple.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com